This recipe makes about 60 cookies. These not-too-sweet cookies are soft with a slight crunch and have just a hint of cream cheese flavour in them. They stay fresh in a cookie jar or container for quite a while.

You can use any cookie dough recipe that is labelled "refrigerator or icebox" or that in the instructions you must roll, refrigerate and slice prior to baking.

The dough is sticky and need to be chilled to work with.***Dough will be sticky, you will wonder how in the heck you will manage it, but keep chilling it and it will be fine *****

Combine butter, shortening and cream cheese in a large bowl, beat together until smooth. Add sugar and salt. Beat until combined. Beat in egg and almond extract until combined and gradually add the flour beating until combined.

Form dough into a ball with your hands, if it is super sticky, put it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Turn dough out onto countertop and form a long log shape divide the dough into 6 portions. I initially divided the dough into five portions and then took some dough off each piece for the sixth one. Each portion should be slightly larger (by, lets say 20%) so you have a range in sized from smaller to larger.Sorry, I don't have a better description of this process or better measurements. You would be okay if you just divided them into 6 equal pieces, you will just end up with thinner rainbow stripes at the top of the rainbow.

Place each portion of dough into individual bowls and tint the dough different colours. Starting from Largest piece to smallest piece: Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Violet.Cover bowls and chill for 2 hours in fridge or 45 minutes in freezer.

Cut a couple pieces of parchment paper or waxed paper and use them to roll the dough out on, it will be sticky.Violet piece:roll out into a 8" (approx) log and set aside.Blue piece:Roll out into an 8" long rectangle. The width of the rectangle will be wide enough to go completely around the violet log without overlapping too much.Try to get an even thickness (about 1/8")Place or roll the violet log onto the edge of the blue rectangle and using the parchment paper to help, roll the blue rectangle onto the violet log so that it covers it completely. Seal up seams, roll completed log a few times on the parchment to make sure the layers have adhered to one another and to round out the shape.

Continue with each colour, subsequent rectangles will get larger as they need to cover a large log, that's why the amount of dough needs to be increased with the colours of the rainbow going up to the top of the rainbow.

*Keep the unused colours in the fridge until you are ready to use them*If at any time the colour log you are working on becomes too soft, put in the freezer for 15-20 minutes to firm it up and make it easier to work with

Once the red dough goes on, roll a few times to round off the log and then wrap and refrigerate several hours or overnight, or put it in the freezer for an hour.

Cut the log in half if desired and then slice off 1/4" slices with a sharp knife.Cut the round slice in half if desired and place on greased (or parchment or silicone mat covered cookie sheet) about 1" apart. ORBake them as a round slice and cut them in half immediately after baking when they are still hot.

Bake for 13-15 minutes at 350F (this varies widely by oven, cookie sheet and whether or not you are using a silicone mat) Mine took closer to 20 minutes because my cookie sheet is insulated and I use a silicone mat.Bake until they are set and the bottoms are just a tiniest bit light light brown.

Let cool on cookie sheet 3 minutes and then place on racks to cool completely.

I have used this cookie recipe in the following videos. Step by step mixing instructions are in this video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gCGYd...Only difference being you don't add the cherries or juice to the dough.

One regret was that I didn't just simply measure and mark down the length of each dough portion to give you an idea of the dimensions of the dough pieces.If I make these again I will amend the instructions.